51
E. Unemployment Rates of Aboriginal Canadians
i. Situation in 2001
Unemployment is significantly higher among Aboriginal Canadians than among non-
Aboriginal Canadians. In 2001, the unemployment rate for Aboriginals was 16.5 per cent,
compared to the non-Aboriginal rate of 5.9 per cent, a gap of 10.6 percentage points. In general,
at higher level of educational attainment, both the unemployment rate of the two communities
and the gap between their respective unemployment rates were lower. Educational attainment,
however, is not the prime factor behind the differences in unemployment rates between
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations. In fact, if Aboriginal Canadians had in 2001 the
educational profile of non-Aboriginal Canadians, three-quarter of the difference between the
unemployment rate of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians would remain (Appendix Table
53).
Chart 14: Unemployment by Educational Attainment for Aboriginal and Non-
1996
Source: Census 1996 and 2001
2001
High school education is again shown to be particularly effective at reducing
unemployment given that the unemployment rate for Aboriginal persons who have not graduated
from high school in 2001 was 23.0 per cent compared to 13.2 per cent for those that had high
school graduation or more as their highest educational attainment (Chart 14).18
18 Interestingly, the unemployment rate of Aboriginal Canadians with high school graduation or greater is higher
than that of those who just completed high school (Appendix Table 12). This is because Aboriginal Canadians who